Waiting For Superman
by Scarlet has Fantasy Issues
Summary: Superman was supposed to take a young girl to a dance, but never showed. That's not a problem when the Flash is there to take up the reins with a guaranteed smile on all faces. Short, one shot


**A/N: This is my first Justice League story and I have been sitting on the idea for several weeks now. It's not my best work, but I had to get it out and I had to snap at some of my least favorite superheroes in the League. Obviously the idea for this story comes from the song title of Daughtry's "Waiting for Superman" and if you can't handle that, please leave now.**

 **For those of you who have stayed, please enjoy reading this one shot.**

 **OOOOOOOOO**

The Flash moved through the Justice League building in the New York location, moving slower than he would have liked. Apparently moving at lightning speed was not appreciated when there were important documents that the employees had worked so hard to keep in order. Batman and Superman were the ones who put the ban on him and he was forced to obey unless he wanted to be pommelled into the dust by the one with an S on his chest.

As he walked at the speed that he was allowed, he noticed a young girl sitting in the hall just outside the main lobby. She was dressed in a rose red ball gown and staring at something clasped in her hands. He glanced around, wondering what she was doing there, but couldn't dwell on the thought for very long because someone needed him in another part of the building.

 _She's probably someone's daughter here_ , he reasoned with himself as he moved along. _They probably just stopped in here to finish some paperwork or something._ The sound of rain overhead made him glance up. _Or maybe she came in here to wait out the storm because her boyfriend's car broke down and he wanted her to stay cool and dry…Yeah. It's got to be one of those things. She'll be gone soon._

The Flash moved through the building, fulfilling the needs that arose. He made several mental notes to find a way to pay the others back for making him do this paperwork nonsense when he could use his skills in a far better manner. Sure he enjoyed the ability to flirt with some non-superhero type ladies in the building, but he missed the action and excitement of battling the bad guys. And he missed the ability to run around as fast as he wanted to. He was the Flash for a reason – he shouldn't have to move around the place at a snail's pace. It was maddening to be forced to obey the speed limits of a normal human when he could have circled the planet three hundred times in the two minutes that it took to get him from one floor of the building to the next.

 _They're going to pay for this_ , he told himself. _I am going to make them regret making me do this slow work every other month. I will file an official complaint and they'll have to listen. If they don't, then I'm going to resort to Plan B. I won't let them catch me and I'll scour the globe to find the next villain before he can cause more damage._

He stopped in the lobby and handed a pile of boxes over to the attending secretary. As he exchanged pleasant chitchat, he glanced towards the hall and saw that the young girl was still sitting there, this time she was staring at the wall opposite of her. A glance at the clock behind the secretary told him that ten minutes had passed since he had last seen her, but she was still there and looked like she wasn't going to leave any time soon.

 _She'll be gone in a little bit_ , Flash told himself, gathering another armload of boxes that the secretary needed him to get up to the thirteenth floor. _There's no way that she'll stay in this dump for much longer. Not in that outfit._

A half an hour later, Flash came back down to the lobby with more paperwork and a couple of boxes. He paused as he glanced towards the hall again. The young lady was still there, clasping her hands together on her lap with her head bowed so that her red hair obscured her face. Cocking an eyebrow, Flash moved over to the secretary's desk and handed her the things in his arms.

"Hey Carol," he said, leaning his elbow on the small desk. "Do you know what's up with that girl over there?"

The secretary leaned forward and glanced in the direction of the girl. "Nope."

Flash looked at her. "She's not one of the employees children is she?"

Carol shook her head. "Not that I know of. Should I have her escorted off the premises?"

"No, no. She's not hurting anything." Flash straightened and smiled. "I'll go see what she's doing here. Tell Bats that I'm done for the night if he calls."

Carol made some kind of comment that Flash didn't quite catch before he was approaching the young lady in the hallway. She lifted her head when she heard his footsteps, but half of her face remained hidden by her hair. He saw the sadness in the one eye that he could see and felt a little tug on his heart. Leaning against the wall across from her, he smiled.

"Hey there," he said. "If you're here for a job interview, I must say that you came a bit overdressed. Unless that's the new interview wear and I should be sending out a memo to all the potential employees of the future."

The young lady smiled weakly. "I'm not here for a job interview."

"I figured." Flash crossed his arms. "Then why are you here, dressed in that pretty little dress, if I may ask?"

"I'm waiting."

"For what?"

Sweeping her hair back away from her face, the girl looked at him with color flooding her face. "For something I should have known wouldn't happen." She clenched her hands together on her lap. "I'm waiting for Superman to take me out to a dance."

Flash's eyes widened. "You were going on a date with Superman? Why would you want to do that?"

"He said that he would come to the dance with me," the girl explained. "My friends wanted me to go to the dance with someone because I haven't been out of the house for months…ever since the accident, I haven't left except to go to school and physical therapy…"

"Wait! You're Valeria Matthews? The girl with the…"

"Prosthetic leg? Yeah, that's me." She reached down and lifted her dress' skirt high enough for him to get a glimpse of the black prosthetic. "Car accident caused by a drunk." The leg was covered again. "He took my leg up to my knee and survived without a scratch."

"I'm sorry to hear that. I really am." Flash looked down at his feet, scuffing his toe against the polished floor. "I remember that story on the news and how your friends swarmed around you to help with that new leg of yours. And the plea for Superman to take you out to your eighth grade graduation dance…"

"Obviously that was a mistake." Valeria wiped a hand across her face. "Superman wouldn't have the time to do this…I know he gave me a two hour waiting period, but it's been an hour and I haven't seen him." A sigh escaped her lips. "He said that he would take me to so many pretty places to take photographs before the dance begins, but he's not here. He probably isn't coming."

"Hey, I'm sure that he's regretting not being here on time," Flash said, moving to sit next to her on the bench. "Superman is a really busy guy and he forgets that there are people out there who are counting on him to just spend a few hours with them. I mean, he's part of the Justice League and there are dozens of other people who could save the world while he dances with someone as pretty as you."

He looked at her with a frown. "Why didn't you ask to go with someone else? Like Batman?"

"Batman's sleeping with Wonder Woman," Valeria pointed out.

 _Who isn't?_ Flash shook his head. "What about the Green Arrow?"

"He's married."

"Green Lantern?"

"Married."

"The other green guy?"

Valeria shook her head. "He made it clear that he's not a dancing type of person. And Aqua Man is fishy smelling, plus the hook would make it hard to dance with him like everyone else."

"Well…why didn't your friends ask me to take you to the dance?" Flash asked, watching her.

A little laugh escaped her lips and she quickly pressed her hand against her mouth, color flooding her face again. It took her a moment before she could speak to him again. "I told them not to bother. You wouldn't have any fun in a dance with teenagers. The dances would be too slow for you and the action wouldn't make it worth your time. I didn't want you to get bored just for the sake of fulfilling some charity case like me."

Valeria began to push herself off of the bench, wobbling on her feet a little. "I should just call my dad and have him take me home. It's obvious that I'm not going to any dance tonight."

The young girl almost fell, but Flash jumped up and caught her by the elbow to stabilize her. He squeezed her arm gently and smiled. "Hey, I've got an idea," he said. "Do you think you could hold off on calling your dad for a minute? I think I know how to get you to that dance." He eased her back onto the bench and backed up. "Hold on for just a moment."

Valeria looked skeptical, but nodded and settled back onto the bench. The Flash ran through the building and quickly sought the suit that he kept here for emergencies. On the way past a desk, he grabbed a bunch of flowers and then was running back to the hall, ignoring the cries of employees who had their work blown in the wind that followed his speed. He could handle the talk down that he would get from his superior allies later. Tonight, he was going to do what real heroes should do.

Help a young lady enjoy her first dance since an accident took away her courage.

Appearing in the hall once more in his tuxedo and mask, Flash held out the bouquet of white flowers and smiled. "Miss Valeria Matthews, would you care to go to your eighth grade graduation dance with me?"

The young lady looked up at him in surprise. "Are you sure you want to do that? I mean, I'm very slow on this leg and I know that the dances will be a little slow for you…You don't – you don't have to do this."

Flash crouched in front of her and took hold of one of her hands. "I know that I don't have to do this. I want to do it, Valeria. Your friends knew it was time for you to get out of that house and enjoy the world again. Who am I to let you go back into that house when you have so much more to live for? This dance is going to be your first step into a new life that will be fun, happy, and beautiful. And I'm not going to leave you alone until you agree to let me take you to the dance." He smiled at her. "I can be rather annoying when I don't get what I want."

He offered her the flowers again. Valeria smiled at him and took the flowers, smelling them lightly. Her green eyes rose to meet his.

"You sure?" she asked.

"I'm absolutely sure," Flash said. "Now what do you say we go take some photographs and get our groove on the dance floor?"

Valeria nodded. "That'd be awesome, Mr. Flash."

The Flash helped her to her feet and wrapped his arm around hers. "Please, it's just Flash, my dear. You see, Mr. Flash was my father." He grabbed her camera from the bench. "Smile for the first picture, Valeria."

OOOOOOOOO

Flash danced with Valeria until the very last moment of the dance. She had been a little awkward on her prosthetic leg and had to stop dancing for a few minutes every now and then, but Flash made sure that she was always smiling. Her friends had been pleasantly surprised to see that he had accompanied her to the dance and he did a little trash talking about Superman that made the group laugh. Valeria had leaned her head against his shoulder during the last slow dance of the night, feeling so small in his arms. He had held onto her for a few heartbeats after the music faded and then had guided her over to a table so that she could sit down for a moment.

He stayed with her until her father had tucked her safely in his car, promising that he would keep in contact with her. And he promised to have lunch with her the next day so that they could talk some more and he'd give her the developed photographs of the night.

Once back at the Justice League hideout, Flash started sorting through the digital files of the camera and printed out the best photographs that he could. He was humming along to one of the songs that he had danced to with Valeria when the doors behind him whispered open.

"Flash, where have you been?" Superman's voice demanded from behind him. "There were reports that you left the New York location hours before you were supposed to."

"And those reports are accurate, Supes," Flash said, not turning to look at his ally. "I left to go dancing with a wonderful young lady."

Superman appeared in his peripheral vision and looked up at the screen where the photographs were displayed. "Isn't that girl a little too young for you?"

"We just danced and had a good time," Flash replied. "I'm just surprised that you don't recognize her, Supes."

"Why should I recognize her? She's just a teenage girl. There are thousands of them out there."

Flash turned and crossed his arms as the printer started to print off the photographs. "Well, this one is different from the thousand others. She was supposed to be your date tonight as you promised you would be hers."

Superman glanced back at the screen. "That's Veronica Masters?"

"No, that's Valeria Matthews," Flash corrected. "The girl whose friends begged for you to take her to her last dance as an eighth grader because her accident made her hide in the house. They had faith that you would honor your word. She had faith that you would show up and prove that heroes aren't all about muscles and super powers. And you let her down."

"Well, I had a good reason to miss the dance," Superman said, crossing his arms. "I had to disarm a group of criminals that were going to drop a nuclear weapon on the United States capital."

"Uh-huh. And I suppose that lipstick on the side of your neck came from one of the criminals." Flash pointed at the spot. "I didn't know that criminals kissed heroes and certainly not with the same brand of lipstick that Wonder Woman uses."

Superman smacked his hand against his neck and color flooded his face. "I can explain…"

"She doesn't want to hear it. Trust me."

"Maybe I could make it up to her?" Superman muttered, looking up at the photographs as they disappeared one-by-one from the screen. "I could take her to an amusement park or for a picnic or something…"

Flash gathered up the freshly printed photographs and stared hard at the taller man. "Don't go making promises to people that you know you can't keep. And she doesn't want to see you. You've already ruined your reputation with her and now her friends are going to spread the truth about how you don't have time to spend with lesser beings. No one will ask you to come to a party or to a dance again because we all know that you would rather leap buildings in a single bound and pound things into the dust. Face it, Supes. You don't have time to do little gestures like taking a young girl to a dance. So we won't bother you with the job again."

He started to walk away when Superman cleared his throat.

"How do you know that this is going to happen, Flash?"

"Simple." Flash headed towards the doors. "We're all tired of waiting for you, Superman. So very tired."

 **OOOOOOOOO**

 **A/N: So what did you think about this attempt? I would love to hear any critique and any compliments. Even flames are welcome as long as they aren't too harsh and if they aren't, I can just make some virtual smores to share with my friends. Please read and review responsibly! Thanks! –Scarlet**


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